GUEST SPEAKERS - 1998

DECEMBER - Adelaide Edge Zarrella Partner of KPMG - Enabling Technologies Group TOPIC: E Commerce Edge Zarrella is the Partner in charge of the Enabling Technologies group with KPMG in the Adelaide practice. He has worked in Information Systems in Adelaide, Sydney and Toronto, Canada. In this role, Edge provides IS consulting services for a variety of clients in the financial, manufacturing, local government, insurance and legal sectors. This includes strategic information systems planning, security reviews, business resumption planning and IT efficiency reviews of management information centres. Edge has also conducted numerous management workshops to facilitate business & IS strategy, business risk, disaster and fraud risk strategies.

As well as the above areas, Edge has also been heavily involved in Electronic Commerce and his discussion at the WIT luncheon was on this topic. Edge has taken a very balanced view of E Commerce and certainly provided all in attendance with the pros and cons of rushing into this high investment area without first doing your homework! Electronic commerce is seen as the new buzzword and many companies in an effort to keep up with technology have invested large sums in internet technology with no real results. One of the points that Edge reinforced is that E Commerce is not an IT decision, it should be a business decision. The big question is what is E-commerce really good for? Will it improve your distribution process, your accounting functions, your sales, etc??? Are your staff, supply lines, production capabilities and customers ready for it. Edge sited several real instances where the above questions were not answered and companies were not fully aware of what they were doing or why they were doing it! As edge impressed on everyone, there must be a "real" benefit achieved from moving to E-Commerce, before it can be considered successful. One of the other things Edge brought to light, is that if you do all the right preparation and you invest in E-commerce and it works as it should, it will most likely result in better efficiencies. This could result in changing the way in which a company has operated in the past. The changes may be drastic, ie these new efficiencies could result in large reductions of staff, and a total change of the company culture. Is the company ready for this??? Edge shared some interesting figures from recent surveys which disproved many of the perceptions we hold about how successful E-Commerce really is. The end result of this interesting and informative session was, do your homework, make the decisions based on solid business cases, know your market, ensure that you will recoup your investment.

DECEMBER - Melbourne Marianne Broadbent Director, IT Executive Program, GartnerGroup Pacific "Topic : Explaining the Impossible to the Unwilling: Managing Business Expectations for IT" Dr Marianne Broadbent is Director of GartnerGroup’s IT Executive Program in Australia and New Zealand where she works with CIOs and business and IT management teams. She was previously a Professor in the Management of Information Systems at the Melbourne Business School, University of Melbourne, Visiting Researcher at Boston University, and Head of the Department of Information Services at the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology. Her industry research, consulting and advising activities have involved over 80 businesses in nine countries and has managed her own successful consulting and advisory services firm. She and her colleague Peter Weill are authors of the book Leveraging the New Infrastructure: How Market Leaders Capitalize on Information Technology published by Harvard Business School Press in June 1998. Marianne has a Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees from Sydney and Macquarie Universities respectively, and a doctorate from the University of Melbourne.

SEPTEMBER Yvonne Adele Ms Megabyte TOPIC: "Leveraging your Business by Personal entrepreneurial skills" Dynamic, Inspirational do not begin to describe Ms Megabyte. Her flaming ‘Cherry-Bomb’ hair is only a minute indication of the determination oozing from her every pore. Ms Megabyte addressed 21 Senior I.T. Women at the Women Are I.T. luncheon on Wed. 16th Sept.. The chosen topic was ‘Leveraging using your natural entrepreneurial skills’ and described Ms Megabyte conquering the likes of ‘Womens’ Weekly’ and ‘The Midday Show’. The next quest for Ms Megabyte is to produce her own T.V. show and there was absolutely no doubt amongst the 21 guests that this will be achieved and in the not too distant future. The members of W.I.T. felt privileged to meet Ms Megabyte and witness ‘success’ in the happening, She is a very entertaining Guest Speaker who is living the Dream - if you have the Talent, Drive and Determination, anything is possible.

Visit Ms Megabte at www.msmegabyte.com.au

JULY Emilios Kyrou  Partner of Mallesons Stephen Jaques Solicitors - Dispute Resolution Group TOPIC: "Y2K – Responsibilities, Exposures, Insurance and How to Guard Against Litigation"

For more information visit http://www.msj.com.au.

MAY

Melanie Conomikes
Founding Director of Eye Media
TOPIC: "Everything you want to know about e-business but ............"

MARCH - Melbourne Adrian Brooks Asecs P/L TOPIC: "Leadership qualities needed to create and build successful IT companies" Adrian Brooks would have been a pilot but the Air Force decided he was not a leader. Instead he led two software companies into million dollar export markets for Australia!

Fortunately Brooks only found out a few months ago that the reason he failed his pilot's test at age 17 was a perceived lack of leadership on his part - his mother kept the result hidden in case he got a complex. Otherwise he might never have ventured out on his own.

Actually it was not on his own. Brooks always starts his ventures with a partner - this he says is for moral support - and to complement his own skills.

Having had an authoritarian father he has always shied away from authoritarianism. He thinks this is why he finally decided at age 34 to work for himself.

He said recently, when he was 17 he thought leadership meant the leader had to solve the problem and then tell his team what to do.

Since then his approach is rather different. A favourite quote is from Napoleon. "I have to follow them - I'm their leader."

He said it didn't take him long to realise the benefit of sharing challenges - with some extremely talented colleagues - starting with his first partner. David Albert he said was one of the most brilliant technical people he has ever known.

However enthusiasm he said is the most important characteristic a prospective employee can have. If they "light up" the room when they walk in they'll probably get the job. "I mean they wouldn't bother to apply if they didn't have the other requirements would they," he says.

Brooks says he used to be a fad a week person. He's read very widely and picks up ideas from everywhere and tries them.

One concept that made a great impression, he picked up while at IBM 30 years ago. It was about making a successful business. IBM said you had to have five basic items in place - a good idea; the talent to research and develop it; the means to market and sell it; and the mechanism to support it effectively. Last but not least was the means to finance it - especially difficult in Australia. That's why Brooks partnered with wealthy multinationals - they had sufficient funds to complete the IBM formula.

First it was Inscom which sold out to New Zealand Insurance when its first customer, a large insurance company called Palmdale, became insolvent. NZI was impressed to read (in ComputerWorld) about Inscom's Polisy product which involved rapid prototyping to produce a real-time system in the early 1980's!

Second time round it was Creative Software and Swiss Re which took a shareholding initially. However several years later Brooks sold out completely and left the industry after his second partner David Jeffcott tragically died of cancer.

Both times the companies had flourished, selling product round the world with the financial assistance of their corporate partners.

Today Brooks partner is his son Richard. Together they bought Asecs Pty Ltd a Notes developer which is also aimed at the insurance industry. Being able to work with his son demonstrates Brooks leadership skills have indeed come a long way. He said "I had experienced one kind of leadership as a young man - autocracy.

"My view now is the leader shares the vision. I have learned good leadership and good management are quite different. Enthasiasm is catching. And everyone needs to know exactly what the goal is. I tell everyone we're all equal in achieving it."

MARCH - Adelaide Teri Whiting Vice President of Information Services for FH Faulding & Co Limited. "Year 2000 Issues facing IT Management." Teri has implemented an innovative campaign to address this issue within Faulding and made the point "that until the CEO and the management teams are convinced that this is a business issue, Y2K projects will not be effective. Teri believes that by including staff at all levels throughout the company they are effectively addressing this issue from all angles and on several occasions has received input from sections within the company, which may not have been thought of beforehand.

To ensure value for money invested in Y2K problems, Faulding have divided issues into 2 areas:

• Business Critical (must be fixed or replaced)
• Non Business Critical (can be fixed, replaced or circumvented

This also creates the opportunity to add value to the business through Year 2000 requirements.

Another area for concern is the guarantee from Vendors as to the term "Year 2000 Compliant". Faulding have a team including legal personnel investigating the validity of the term "Year 2000 Compliant", how ownership of responsibility will be gained and, where necessary, reinforced.

Overall, it was an insightful conversation and many new ideas were exchanged.

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